It is becoming increasingly apparent that recycling of the by-products of society will eventually become a necessary way of life. One aspect of the recycling program is the recycling of plastic containers including those made of HDPE and PET, i.e. plastic bottles. Simple observation indicates that such pliant yet resilient containers have a disproportionate volume to weight ratio when contained in refuse. Accordingly, it is obvious that densification at the earliest stage of recycling is desirable. While household densification may not be feasible, curbside densification would prove quite beneficial to municipal collection of recyclables. Heretofore in the art, numerous devices have been disclosed for crushing metals cans. Exemplary of these are U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,827; U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,199; U.S. Pat. No. 3,691,942; U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,128; U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,259; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,198. Plastic containers are more resilient than metal cans and quite often this characteristic is amplified by the fact that the caps are replaced on the container when it is discarded. When this condition occurs, the plastic container must be perforated (ruptured) to permit the air to escape prior to crushing. Thus the plastic containers are frequently ejected from the input end of the prior art devices and thus present somewhat of a hazard, particularly if the device is used at a curbside location. Also, incomplete crushing or failure of the perforator is more likely to be a problem with plastic containers. It is also desirable that a curbside unit be portable and operative iteratively to permit safe, yet efficient, operation. Many of the prior art devices do not lend themselves to such utilization.